Episodic memories are formed by hippocampal binding of the “what” and “where” features of everyday events. The hippocampus minimizes interference between related similar episodic memories by pattern separation. Stress and psychopathology are associated with lowered pattern separation. While current behavioral paradigms typically use correct rejections of single object or context lures rather than composite stimuli, it is not known if object and context pattern separation differentially associate with mental health. We reasoned that an object-in-context paradigm would be more sensitive to mental health state than current implementations, given increased task demands. We found that non-clinical depression and anxiety symptom severity were associated with reduced lure rejection for both object and context and that only the object domain was associated with a concomitant increase in lure overgeneralization. Therefore, we argue that reduced lure rejection and increased overgeneralization must not be conflated. Although our object-in-context paradigm was not more sensitive to variation in mental health, we show that lure rejection and overgeneralization rate in one domain (e.g. object) was affected by the status of the other domain (e.g. context target versus lure). Finally, as several metrics of pattern separation exist in the literature, we evaluated the association of different metrics with mental health.

海马对日常事件的“什么”和“哪里”特征的绑定形成了情景记忆。海马通过模式分离将相关的类似情景记忆之间的干扰降到最低。压力和心理病理学与模式分离降低有关。虽然当前的行为范例通常使用对单个对象或上下文诱饵的正确拒绝，而不是复合刺激，但尚不清楚对象和上下文模式的分离是否与心理健康有差异。我们认为，鉴于任务需求的增加，与当前的实现方式相比，上下文对象范式对心理健康状态更为敏感。我们发现，非临床抑郁症和焦虑症状的严重程度与减少对象和环境的诱饵拒绝有关，并且只有对象域与诱饵过度泛化的伴随增加有关。因此，我们认为不能将减少诱饵拒绝和增加过度概括的问题混为一谈。尽管我们的上下文对象范式对心理健康的变化并不敏感，但我们显示一个域（例如对象）中的诱饵拒绝和泛化率受另一域的状态（例如上下文目标与诱饵）的影响。最后，由于文献中存在几种模式分离的指标，我们评估了不同指标与心理健康的关联。我们认为，不能将减少诱惑的拒绝和增加过度概括的问题混为一谈。尽管我们的上下文对象范式对心理健康的变化并不敏感，但我们显示一个域（例如对象）中的诱饵拒绝和泛化率受另一域的状态（例如上下文目标与诱饵）的影响。最后，由于文献中存在几种模式分离的指标，我们评估了不同指标与心理健康的关联。我们认为，不能将减少诱惑的拒绝和增加过度概括的问题混为一谈。尽管我们的上下文对象范式对心理健康的变化并不敏感，但我们显示一个域（例如对象）中的诱饵拒绝和泛化率受另一域的状态（例如上下文目标与诱饵）的影响。最后，由于文献中存在几种模式分离的指标，我们评估了不同指标与心理健康的关联。